


Ashes & Dust

by Aoivino



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Attempt at Humor, Fix-It, Gen, I Don't Even Know, Identity Issues, Making this up as I go along, Reincarnation, Slow Build, Slow To Update probably, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-01-22 06:44:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12475740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoivino/pseuds/Aoivino
Summary: When we die, we go on to be reincarnated into new bodies. Time matters not and sometimes, we end up being reincarnated in the same place we died--just separated by eons and death and life. We meet new people who are extremely and terrifyingly familiar. Not having the awareness of our past life however, we move with our new lives without noticing anything amiss.  But sometimes, people are meant to find each other over and over again until their souls are satisfied.We're not supposed to remember anything from our past life for obvious soul-crushing, identity crisis causing reasons, but sometimes (maybe due to a glitch in reality, or maybe just because) we do remember.The night before she's assigned her team as a new genin, Sakura dreams of a dying boy with sapphire eyes and garnet red hair from a world far removed from her own. It slowly tips her world upside down and she doesn't notice until it's too late. Nothing is what it seems to be, and her dumb teammates and sensei aren't helping.





	1. Garnet and Sapphire

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first story here, so please go easy on me. This will be a slow to update kind of a story due to me writing this on top of my two jobs and school. Why am I doing this even though I have a full schedule? Well, all of my hobbies are dead and I need a new one before I go crazy and writing is cathartic. So, here I am. 
> 
> I do not own Naruto. I like constructive criticism so feel free to (nicely) say things. Pls be gentle. ;)
> 
> Not beta'd.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I may have accidentally deleted my previous posting of chapter one. I am very very sorry. I was trying to see if I could edit one of the chapters from my phone and just decided to press where ever and also press okay on every dialogue box that popped up. >.>;;;
> 
> I am putting it up again. Enjoy! <3

O0O

 

"Have you ever thought about the name on your wrist?"

 

The flowery meadow they were standing in had taken a light orange hue in the wake of the setting sun, and the enormous old oak in front of them looked like it was something out of a fantasy with its colossal branches reaching for the sky. Turning slightly to the left where Rowan stood with his back to her, she tries to think about the question. She also stares at him. Hard. His tall, bony figure looking like he might just blow away with the wind if she wasn't careful. His favorite shirt, too big for him now, was not doing any favors to quell the thought. He had lost a lot of weight in the past five months, cancer and chemotherapy eating away at his body until he was just a weak shell filled with less than a fraction of who he used to be.

 

We shouldn’t even be here, she thinks instead, we should be in the hospital where you absolutely wouldn't be babbling about soulmates like that's still even a thing to consider.

 

Not replying back, she breaks her glare to look around them nervously. It was getting dark and they needed to head back to the hospital before--

 

"I guess not," Rowan says after the particularly long silence following his question.

 

"Not really," she whispers, as if breaking her silence was a sin, "I-since it's almost impossible to find someone with your name and there are literally billions of people in the planet. No way--how would that even work? Names don't just pop up on people like that, not anymore. Too many people in the world. Okay, maybe I have thought about it some but I don’t think I've ever felt the name on my wrist do anything, and I doubt I ever will."

 

"Sometimes, the name in mine burns hot before going back to normal. I think they're around, somewhere kind of close."

 

Her heart skips a beat; of course the name on his wrist decides to do something now. She sighs before stepping forward and putting an arm around him. "What's the use of it now? Let's go back. They only said we could bring you out for few hours, not the whole day and night."

 

Letting his sister lead him away from the oak tree, Rowan frowns. Noticing that, her heart pangs. A year ago, she would have encouraged him to pursue it, to look for the name in his wrist and would have hoped for the best. But now though, taking in his sickly complexion and knowing he doesn't have much time left, she has a selfish desire to keep her younger brother to herself.

 

"I just wonder if they'll know when I die--if they'll feel my name disappear from their skin or they'll just wake up one day and it'll be gone. Maybe they'll miss me. Or will they just feel empty for the rest of their lives, you know? I never really tried to learn about it much before now, but it's so strange to wrap my head around. Research says they'd feel a brief sharp pain--what does that even mean? It's sharp pain and then what? Do you feel anything else? What happens after? No one wants to talk about it--" Listening to Rowan babble was almost like listening to his old self, she thinks to herself as they make their way back to the hospital.

 

Rowan dies in his sleep two months later at the age of 23. He had gotten much weaker leading up to it and she had done her best to be prepared for the inevitable. It was a peaceful death, and she's glad he isn't hurting anymore. She ensures she doesn't lose her wits in public and only close friends ever witness her deep grief. I'm the only one now, she lets herself think in the privacy of their home, the last one. She has him buried the next day next to their parents and decides on the funeral being a week later.

 

Rowan's funeral is a rowdy all day kind of an affair and his friends don't know whether to cry or laugh as they share stories about her little brother and his antics. His picture smiles down at them from the altar, taken just a few months before his diagnosis. His garnet red hair shining like blood in the sun and his sapphire blue eyes sparkling mischievously like he's proud of everything they're saying about him. Just 30 minutes before they head to a bar to down out sorrows with more alcohol, a young woman steps into the room. She seems to be the only one who notices this stranger, everyone else either gone or just talking to one another as they prepare to get ready to head out. Their eyes meet, and the young woman gives her a wan smile, before nodding and walking towards the altar. She looks like a painful contrast of Rowan, with her pale skin, and black hair, but still beautiful nonetheless. She notices the stranger rub her wrist, right where Rowan's name would have been, had he been alive. Burning hot, she remembers him saying. She wonders how the stranger knew, if she felt any pain or if she just woke up one day and saw that the name had disappeared. She lets it go, and when she's watching the young woman leave just minutes later, she thinks the stranger might have made a good match for her little brother.

 

Living in a too-big house with too many memories of too many dead people is too much for her so she sells the house and moves into a flat. The days go by agonizingly slowly before time heals her wounds enough for her to smile genuinely again.

 

8 years after Rowans death, she meets him. It's quite unfortunate that the name on her wrist burns cold right when she's literally laying on her deathbed. The accident had actually happened a few meters away from her, on the other side of the large intersection; how was she supposed to know the damn car would flip that many times and hit her on the damn sidewalk?

As she lays in her very own cot in the pristine ambulance with a shard of metal stuck into her stomach and bleeding out, the paramedics trying their best to keep her alive, she opens her mouth. "wrist...cold" It really is a weak whisper and really, no one should have been able to hear that. She also doesn't even know who she is talking to or if anything is coming out of her mouth but he hears her. The one closest to her face turns in surprise. Mismatched eyes like they didn't know which one would be the best for his face look meets her own eyes and her breath catches. Oh, she thinks hazily, how beautiful. Surprise gives way to fear that rapidly gives way to steel control before he turns back to her stomach to try to stop the inevitable with renewed vigor. There wasn't much he could do to change anything, however. Feeling herself getting weaker, she sighs. Well that's too bad, she thinks in resignation before letting the warm darkness envelop her.

 

Next to her, his wrist stops burning cold after a flash of pain and the ECG machine flat lines. 10 minutes later, when he's at the hospital, he dares himself to finally look at his wrist and it's like there was no name there to begin with. There's nothing to care for; it wasn’t like it would mean or even lead to anything. But he occasionally dreams about this nightmarish day for the rest of his life, when he had the world at his fingertips before it all slipped away and disappeared. There's a hole in his heart he lets himself notice once a year. 

 

 O0O

 

Vibrant green eyes snap open as she wakes up with a gasp. She's still laying in her bed in her home and she knows it was just a stupidly detailed dream but she still bringing up her wrist in the darkness to search for a name that isn't there--was never there.  _Heterochromia_ , she recollects as she tries to bring herself to go back to sleep,  _silver and ambe_ r.


	2. Team 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Why can't I try on different lives, like dresses, to see which one fits me and is most becoming?" - Sylvia Plath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I am definitely going to be slow to update. Forgive me. However, I don't intend on abandoning the story.  
> Going forward, I'm not very interested in rehashing all the minor events that happened in canon. Rather, I'd like to focus on the changes more. That said, I tried to slow down and not jump around too much because it wouldn't be much of a story if I did that. I'm not very good with dialogue as I am with descriptions since I have to slow down when I write. 
> 
> I love feedback, so don't feel shy! 
> 
> Not beta'd.

It's like a breath of fresh air when she wakes up the second time. Immediately, her fingers trace over the a non-existent name in her wrist as she tries to take in the fact that it's already daylight. A slight turn of the head towards her alarm clock has her scrambling to get ready for her last day at the Academy, her dream from just hours before momentarily disregarded and forgotten.

 

Assigned to a team with Sasuke-kun was the highlight of her day, even though Naruto (with his sunny trickster's smile _Rowan_ her unusually quiet Inner supplies) was also in the team with them. However, waiting for her late--so late, seriously late, she rages-- sensei is seriously dampening her happy mood about finally being genin alongside her lifelong crush. A not so quiet snicker catches her attention and she finds herself watching a sunny blonde put an eraser on top of the door and she can't help herself.

 

"Baka Naruto, our sensei is a jonin. There's no way he'd fall for that!"

 

Naruto's subsequent and annoying whining about their good for nothing, late sensei aside, she's pretty surprised when a silver haired jonin falls for it. She'll never admit that Naruto's prank left her with satisfaction. But--

 

"My first impression, I hate you."

 

Less than 10 minutes later, they’re on top of the roof with their good for nothing sensei telling them to introduce themselves.

 

"Introduce ourselves?" Sakura frowns, "What should we say?"

 

Their sensei shrugs. "Your likes, dislikes, your future dream, hobbies, things like that!"

 

"Hey! Before that, tell us about yourself!" Naruto scowls.

 

"Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I don’t feel like telling you guys about my likes and dislikes. I never really thought about my future dreams….and as for my hobbies, I have many."

 

Eye twitching, Sakura's impression of their idiot sensei lowers even further. "In the end, we only got his name?"

 

"Next is you guys." He completely disregards her," Blondie, you go first."

 

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I like instant ramen, my favorite is Ichiraku ramen that Iruka Sensei treats me to. I hate the 3 minutes I have to wait after pouring hot water in the instant ramen. My hobbies is eating and comparing ramen! And my dream is to be acknowledged by everyone and become Hokage! Believe it!" Naruto crows, fist pumping in the air.

 

Seeing that everything about the kid was the same as what he read in Naruto's report, Kakashi turns to Sakura. "Now you, pinkie."

 

Naturally, despite her anger at her sensei, she can't help but blush. "I'm Haruno Sakura! What I like, I mean, who I like is…" She sneaks a glance at her gorgeous love, "..and my hobby is, I mean…", Ahh _look at that face_ , "My future dream is.." another glance, a squeal and then a set of mischievous blue eyes and garnet red hair flashes in her mind, she blurts out, "I have to find a certain someone!"

 

She now has three sets of surprised eyes looking at her. _Sasuke_ looks surprised and really, she turns a lot more red than before. Slapping her hand over her mouth, her entire lovestruck look changes to embarrassed. "I mean, I don't _have_ to, I just need to. No, not _need_ to! I just want to. Probably. Nevermind!"

 

"And? What about your dislikes?"

 

"Naruto!" She says bashfully, not yet recovered from her outburst while Naruto whines comically.

 

Girls her age are more interested in romance than in Ninja Arts, Kakashi muses, but her file didn’t say anything about her wanting to find someone.

 

"And lastly, it's your turn, dark and broody."

 

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I have a lot of dislikes and no likes in particular. I don’t want to sum it up as my dream but I have an ambition. The ambition to restore my clan and without fail" Sasuke glowers at _air_ , "Kill a certain man!"

 

Naruto looks a little nervous thinking Sasuke's rage is about him, Sakura a little dejected at her love not saying a word about her but awed at how cool her love is, and Kakashi isn't surprised. Blood thirsty, he thinks.

 

"Good! But you're all pretty boring and lack substance, " Naruto squawks, Sasuke glares, and Sakura sputters, "We have a mission tomorrow. We'll do what we can with just four people."

 

"A mission! What is it?" Excitement hangs in the tense air.

 

"A survival mission! I'll test you to see if you've got what it takes to be a genin under _my_ tutelage. If you fail, you'll be sent back to the academy! The failure rate is 66% or higher! Make sure you don't eat breakfast. You'll puke. Meet me on training ground 3 at 5 AM tomorrow! Dismissed!"

 

"Kakashi-Sensei!--"

 

The man disappears in a swirl of leaves before they get a word in.

 

The next day, they fail the test only to somehow pass it when they share their bento with Naruto.

 

That night, excited that she passed and worn out from the activities of the day, she falls asleep the second her head hits her pillow.

 

That night, Sakura dreams.


	3. Liberty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Erm, quick update? I welcome feedback. :) 
> 
> Not beta'd.

When she's five, she meets her little brother for the first time. He's only a day old and has a little red tuff of hair on his head and his skin makes him looks like a potato. Her mom is awake and he's finally full and  has stopped crying and is on the verge of falling asleep but she wants to hold him because she wants to and he's her baby brother. Her beautiful mother, with her pale cheeks, slate grey eyes and garnet red hair looks at her with all the love in the world and tells her to be careful.

 

"Be nice to him and support his head like so," she says, moving the younger girls short arms around the baby's head.

 

She listens because her mom is never wrong. And when he looks at her with his bright blue eyes, her breath catches on her throat and she falls apart and comes alive at the same time. My baby brother, she thinks gleefully, my potato baby brother.

 

"He looks like a potato with blue eyes, mama." Her mom laughs and it's like a melody when she does and she's very pleased with herself. She looks down at her lap and marvels at the way her brother seems slowly fall into slumber while looking at her.

 

"He does, doesn't he? You looked like one with grey eyes when you were a baby."

 

A gasp. "Really? No way, mama! My skin isn't-isn't potato-ey at all!"

 

A beat. She frowns. "It’s not right?"

 

She gets another laugh out of her mom, a little more quiet this time. "Of course not, cherry. His skin will turn normal soon enough."

 

"Oh. What's his name, mama?"

 

"His name is Rowan, baby. Uzumaki Rowan."

 

O0O

 

Green eyes snap open, and she doesn’t know how to breathe until she feels her heart thundering in her chest and her lungs screaming at her for air. _Uzumaki_ , she thinks with a shuddering gasp and somehow her lungs now need a lot more air, _Uzumaki_. She tries to remember all of the Uzumaki she knows and realizes that there are only three. Uzumaki Mito, Uzumaki Kushina and _Uzumaki Naruto_. Two from history books and only one that she knows is alive. Then a memory from a dream where she's curled up in bed in the darkness of the night after Uzumaki Rowan's death and thinks to herself that she's the last one left.

 

She's hyperventilating now and doesn't know how to stop because she's the last, last, _last_ one and _her brother_ is _dead._ She tries to sit up and a glint in her peripheral catches her attention. A minute of her trying to see past her tears and she realizes that it's a metal frame and it's just a shine from the moonlight out of her window. A frame with a blonde woman, a pink haired man and a pink haired girl in the middle. It calms her down a little and her eyes drink in the photo with a fervor of a child dying of thirst. The night lasts for an hour or maybe millennia and she spends it slowly remembering that her name isn't Uzumaki, but _Haruno Sakura_ and her mother's name is Haruno Mebuki and her father's name is Haruno Kizashi and there's no way she's an Uzumaki when she had never heard of the name before she met Naruto. 

 

Haruno. Not Uzumaki.

 

Haruno Mebuki. Long straight blonde hair and a laugh that's boisterous and kind.

 

Haruno Kizashi. A pink haired man with a million dumbest jokes in his arsenal to make Mebuki laugh.

 

Haruno Sakura. Straight pink hair ( _not wine red_ ), big forehead, with a loud and loving and cheerful and a _full_ family.

 

She repeats it in her head until the eternity of the night passes and dawn comes to wipe away the chilling thoughts her dreams bring her.

 

O0O

 

Team seven's first mission is to catch that demon cat from hell, Tora. Sakura is only a little distracted because the leaves keep whispering to her loudly. She's sleepy and can't focus. When she actually trips after Tora scratches her arms and jumps away, somehow the roots seem to soften her landing. The adrenaline from the fall wakes her enough to follow after Naruto's loud and rowdy voice and Kakashi is only a little concerned. After all, his cute little students getting hurt because of their own clumsiness wouldn’t do.  Although Sakura's not fangirling over her _amazing Sasuke-kun_ nearly as much as he thought she would, which is a little concerning and Kakashi tucks that thought away to examine later. He follows behind his wards as they chase around the cat with an aloof air and an orange book in hand. He takes care to watch over Sakura the most.

 

Sakura trips again. Naruto notices and Sakura notices that Naruto noticed and something painful happens to her heart. His eyes are so blue and she remembers another Uzumaki that had blue eyes who doesn't actually exist (Maybe he does, Inner says, maybe just not in Konoha). When he asks her if she's okay, she _smiles_ at him and he's over the moon.

 

"I'm fine, Naruto. I just didn't sleep well last night."

 

It stings a little that Sasuke-kun didn’t notice or ask.

 

In the end, their mission is a success. Sakura comes home to her parents that night, the two chuunin back from an out of village mission. Her father keeps teasing her mother until he gets yelled at. A bad joke later, her mother is laughing and the dinner together continues on like usual. Sakura shows off her battle scratches and her father teases her about not handling a cat. Her mother rolls her eyes at her father and winks at her. Sakura doesn't say anything but she's relieved they're alive. She's not the last one. 

 

Sakura makes a note to go to the library to look of the Uzumaki later because she's never seen the faces in her dreams before and wants to know more.

 

Sakura falls into a dreamless sleep that night with a full stomach and a content heart, her panic from the night before forgotten in the wake of her parents' chakra near her.

 

The scratches in Sakura's arms are no longer there.

 

O0O

 

The forests surrounding Konoha are dense and green. They give nothing away. The intricate and beautiful seals around the village humming softly with the chakra and lifeforce and the fierce memories of a woman long dead ( _Oh Hashirama,_ the soul of Konoha cries soundlessly during the quietest nights as her inhabitants sleep) _._ There are virtually no loopholes and seals master would be hard pressed to unravel even the simplest parts of the strong wards that protect Konoha. The true seals masters are long gone anyway, their screams haunting Uzushio as the island marred with destruction grieves for her lost children.

 

There are no loopholes and the wards always welcome the blood of Konoha--and Uzushio-- inside the village walls. Really, it's her will that matters the most and Uzumaki Mito has always loved her children. Well, except for one. Only one child has angered her enough for her seals to slowly carve itself out of pattern. _Such insolence_ , the seals seethe.


End file.
